The other day, I saw a question on Twitter asking who we could trust better to give us an accurate understanding of who Jesus is -the Gospel writers of the 1st century or people who have written and commented later, medieval theologians, 19th -21st century sceptics etc? Their argument was that we can trust the 1st century guys best.
I saw one potential objection to this which ran along the lines that we couldn’t necessarily trust the Gospels best. They argued that the Gospels were likely written at least 40 years after the death of Jesus and that we would struggle to accurately remember what happened 40 years ago even if we were at significant events.
Let’s take those two claims in turn. The tendency for the past couple of centuries has been to accept late dates for the Gospels. Some scholars have suggested that they were written over 100 years after the life of Jesus. Most go for dates substantially after his death and resurrection, to AD 70 onwards. However, there are good reasons to argue for earlier dates.
JAT Robinson, even though he approached the Gospels as a liberal, concluded that all of the New Testament must have been written prior to AD70. His point was that the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple was such a significant event, close to the events of the Gospels and Acts, that it would have been impossible for the writers not to have responded to it. However, it seems that those events are absent, even when Jesus talks prophetically in a way that could refer to such events, the writers don’t pause to confirm the fulfilment of those prophecies.[1]
Jonathan Bernier, thinks that Robinson relied a little too much on one argument from silence.[2] However, he notes that Acts cuts things short during Paul’s time in Rome, awaiting trial before the emperor. This points to Luke-Acts being written by or before AD62 and the other Gospels before that.[3] He argues that Mark was likely written prior to AD45.[4] This would mean that the first Gospel was written within 10-12 years of Jesus’ ministry and the last of the synoptics within 30 years.
Secondly, even allowing for a 30-40 year gap between the events and the written records, does this mean that the authors were likely to have forgotten? I want to suggest not. Whilst, there may be some things that I would struggle to remember from over 30 years ago and even more recently, there are also crucial and important events that are significant enough for me to recall. I vividly remember watching and listening to news about the Falklands War as a very small child, seeing a Vulcan bomber, what happened the day I gave my life to Jesus. Even at the time, I knew those things were significant, so I paid attention to them. I can tell you about people I met, conversations I had as a student. I could even repeat verbatim the speech that one friend gave at another’s wedding because what they said stood out.
Sometimes, you will find yourself recalling events that you thought you had forgotten about. These might be prompted by a chance meeting with an old friend or relative. Other significant events may prompt you to reminisce. The recent deaths of my mum prompted us to recall memories of mum. I didn’t sit alone trying to remember them either but was helped by conversations with my dad, sister and others that remembered mum. The Gospel writers would not have been remembering alone but would have no doubt been prompting each other.
Furthermore, it is unlikely that they sat to write from scratch with empty note pads. Rather, they will have been telling those accounts at every opportunity in the days, weeks, months and years after the events. Indeed, they and others were no doubt jotting down notes and writing to others about what they had seen long before they fleshed them out into the final form Gospels.
Finally and crucially, as Evangelical Christians, we believe in the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Matthew, Mark, Luke and John had divine help in recalling the events of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection.
For all of these reasons, we can trust the reliability of the Gospels.
[1] JAT Robinson, Redating the New Testament, 13-30.
[2] Bernier, Rethinking the dates of the New Testament, 9.
[3] Bernier, Rethinking the dates of the New Testament, 61-66.
[4] Bernier, Rethinking the dates of the New Testament, 77.
Faithroots 